Development Core: Project Summary The overall goal of the Development Core (DC) is to provide formal structures designed to encourage scientific exchange, create a shared sense of scientific purpose, and provide tangible support for the development and success of grant proposals that promote the scientific mission of the PRC and the Population Dynamics Branch. The DC advances three specific aims: (1) To sustain and build a productive and engaged community of grant-active population scientists in which interdisciplinary collaboration is valued and common; (2) to facilitate the development of nascent ideas into proposals that successfully compete for extramural funding; and (3) to promote the scientific development and research independence of Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) in the field of population dynamics. Key activities designed to accomplish these aims include: (1) weekly speaker series to foster the exchange of new scientific findings, directions, data, and methodologies; (2) workshops and conferences to promote collaborative research, and to set and advance scientific agendas; (3) topical working groups to encourage interdisciplinary exchange, inspire the development of new ideas, and contribute to a sense of scholarly community and cohesion; (4) visiting demographers program to provide new networking and collaborative research opportunities; promote the exchange of ideas across population centers; (5) seed grant program to support the development of new research projects and new directions for PRC faculty?particularly high-risk, high-reward research in population dynamics that might not otherwise be initiated; (6) proposal boot camp to mentor ESIs in grantsmanship and grant writing, and to provide mentoring and support for grant submissions; (7) grant workshop program to provide intensive and expert development of grant applications at exigent stages of the preparation and submission process; and (8) ESI mentoring to provide support to junior scholars for navigating their research careers, maximizing their research productivity, and fully integrating into the culture of the PRC. The DC works closely with the Administrative Core and the Scientific & Technical Core to coordinate services that best advance the development of PRC faculty members' research in population dynamics.